14-year-old dies at football camp at Camp Blanding

This sign marks the front of Camp Blanding where a high school football player died Wednesday.

A 14-year-old Sebastian River High School football player died early Wednesday after a practice and workout at his team’s football camp at Camp Blanding off Florida 16 south of Middleburg, according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.

The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of ninth grade home-school student William Shogran Jr. He was attending a start-of-season camp held at the base but organized by his school’s football team, known as the Sharks.

The student was playing when he became ill. The 911 call made by a coach and released by the Sheriff’s Office said the player had “suffered from heat issues” and had vomited.

“We’ve got water on him to kind of cool him down,” the coach says on the 911 call. “... He’s conscious; rapid breathing.”

The player was taken to Shands Starke Regional Medical Center in Bradford County, where he was pronounced dead, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The Indian River School District has about 17,000 students in 28 schools and is based in Vero Beach. School district officials learned of the death late Wednesday morning after being told that a player was in medical distress, Assistant Superintendent William Fritz said in a statement.

“The School District and Sebastian River High School communities are deeply saddened by this news,” the statement said in part.

The player’s family was notified and was headed to the hospital. Some coaches were there while others remained with the teammates at the football camp, the Sheriff’s Office said.

According to the Facebook page for the team’s booster club, called the Touchdown Club, the team and coaches left at 3 p.m. Tuesday for the Camp Blanding program. The team had three hours of practice on arrival Tuesday night as well as two and a half hours of practice at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, both in full pads.

The team, which numbers about 45 players, cancelled the rest of the four-day camp and returned to Sebastian, Fritz said. Grief counselors will be available to the school’s students.